June 14 - Timothy McVeigh's trial put the spotlight on the 1994 law that expanded the death penalty to about 60 federal crimes, including attacks on federal buildings and the use of explosives resulting in death.

President Clinton signed it just seven months before the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.

The law is so new that the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to consider its constitutionality, although trial judges approve of it.

So far, the federal death-penalty statute has been applied to only a few dozen other people, including McVeigh's co-defendant Terry Nichols, who is scheduled to be tried sometime later.

Of the federal death-penalty convictions since 1994, six people have been sentenced to die; none has been executed.

While many states impose the death penalty, it has been relatively rare as a punishment for federal crimes. The nation executed 34 people from 1937 through 1963, the last being a man hanged in Iowa for kidnapping.

In 1972, the Supreme Court declared un constitutional all state death-penalty laws on the grounds they were capriciously and arbitrarily applied. The court lifted its ban four years later and allowed states to resume capital punishment.

A 1988 federal death-penalty law was fashioned on the state laws that had passed Supreme Court muster. The 1994 law expanded that statute and, for the first time, specified a means of execution: death by lethal injection.

Coloradans are seen as traditionally reluctant to impose its death penalty.

The state hasn't had an execution since 1967 and has only four people on death row - the third-lowest total in the nation among capital-punishment states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. California leads the nation with 444 death-row inmates.

A few weeks after the bombing, McVeigh's lead attorney, Stephen Jones, said the government may have hurt its case by signaling its intent to seek the death penalty so early.

Clinton called for the death penalty within hours after the bombing. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno made a formal announcement that October.

A Jan. 27, 1995, protocol issued by Reno requires that the defense be notified and the Justice Department fully evaluate the case.

Jones said Reno had failed to follow her own guidelines. But in September 1996, presiding Judge Richard Matsch ruled that prosecutors had followed the correct procedures.

Reno's quick demand for the death penalty is in sharp contrast to the 13 months it took her to announce the same request in the case of Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski. Kaczynski is accused of an 18-year bombing spree that injured 23 people and killed three.

The delay in that case may be partly because Kaczynski's brother, David, led authorities to their man. Kaczysnki's family, hoping the government would consider their cooperation, reacted with shock to the May 15 announcement by the Justice Department.

Under federal law, jurors weigh aggravating factors that might move them toward death or mitigators that might lead to a life sentence.

Aggravating factors are defined as:

Causing death while committing or attempting to commit another crime. In McVeigh's case, that could be the "use of weapons of mass destruction" and explosives.

Previous convictions for violent felonies involving firearms, crimes for which the death penalty or life imprisonment was authorized, or serious state and federal offenses involving serious bodily harm. McVeigh has no such record.

Paying or promising to pay another to commit the crime. There was no testimony that McVeigh did that.

Receiving payment or a promise of payment to commit the crime. Again, there was no evidence that McVeigh took money.

Substantial planning and premeditation "to cause the death of a person or commit an act of terrorism."

The victim was a high federal official, including a judge, law enforcement officer or correctional employee who was on duty. McVeigh was convicted of murdering eight federal law enforcement officers.

Mitigators could include:

Whether McVeigh was unable to fully appreciate how wrong his actions were.

Whether he was under "unusual and substantial duress."

Whether his participation was "relatively minor."

Whether another equally culpable defendant won't be punished by death. McVeigh's co-defendant, Nichols, faces the same charges and, if convicted, the same penalties.

Lack of criminal record. McVeigh had none.

Whether McVeigh acted under "severe mental or emotional disturbance."

Whether the victim "consented to the criminal conduct" resulting in death.

Other factors such as the defendant's background, record, character or "any other circumstance of the offense that mitigates against the imposition of the death sentence." McVeigh is a decorated Persian Gulf War veteran.

Some relatives of Oklahoma City bombing victims still have a decision to make: Will they attend McVeigh's execution?

McVeigh, 29, is the 13th inmate on federal death row.

Ralph Duke hopes to be there when McVeigh meets his fate. Duke, of Colorado Springs, lost his 43-year-old daughter, Claudette Meek, in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Having attended most of McVeigh's trial, Duke said he hoped to attend the convicted man's execution. "I hope it is (done) before I pass away," the 65-year-old Duke said. "I'm hoping." Rudy Guzman lost his brother, Marine Capt. Randy Guzman, in the bombing and would now like to watch McVeigh die.

"I haven't thought about it (attending McVeigh's execution), but I would love to," Guzman said. "I hope to do it."

Jannie Coverdale, a grandmother who lost two grandsons, said she would not.

"No, I couldn't do that," she said, shaking her head from side to side.